Welcome to the work of Linda P. Hancock Calligraphy and Design! The variety of art on this site demonstrates the passion for creativity that drives Linda's enthusiasms. Please make yourself at home, and contact her with questions or inquiries about availability for purchase.Thanks!

Giclée prints of my colored pencil drawings are now available!! "Dinner Will Be Late" and "Lunch on the Fly" are in stock and the others will be printed on request. Let me know your choice (choices??!!) and I'm on it. Email at accounts@lindaphancock.com or give me a call at 608.238.2282.

This Lenten series deals with seven incidents from the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as written in the Gospel of Luke. The art was created in an unusual way: painting all seven images in reverse chronological order on a single canvas.

I started with the interpretation of the Easter day text which reflects the cruxificion and the resurrection. With that art complete and documented by photographing the canvas, the image was painted over to proceed to the Palm Sunday text and its interpretation. Each image was thus “destroyed” in the progression toward the first week of Lent, but traces of the previous images (the “palimpsests”) can be seen in the further treatment of the canvas, an artistic device meant to allude to the complexity and depth of the life that was the human Jesus and the divine Christ. Each text that was the inspiration for the art is displayed on the label next to the piece, and I’ve added a short explanation of my creative process leading to the image I created for each.

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Image at left is Week One of Seven: Luke 9:37–43a

"On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. Just then a man from the crowd shouted, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” Jesus answered, “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” While he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. And all were astounded at the greatness of God.

LPH: This scripture seemed to me to be about the healing, of course, but also about the pain that was inflicted on the child, on his father and on Jesus, whose impatience with what he calls a “faithless and perverse generation" is truly painful to Him, frustrated that his message is not getting through. I chose to depict both the pain and the chaos that is manifested in the frustration by using the brain scan of a person in the throes of an epileptic seizure, with its image of confusion and misdirection.

Image at left is Week Two of Seven: Luke 9:57–62

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

LPH: Jesus’ sorrow in this passage is that the men he encounters here don’t understand that we must “act at once, when our hearts are stirred” if we are to follow in His footsteps. The image is of the mens’ very human and complicated lives—represented by the undulating “plowed” lines on the left—leading toward the clear and straight lines that their lives of faithfulness would become, if only they would proceed without making excuses.

Image at left is Week Three of Seven:Luke 13:10–17

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

LPH: For this image, I chose a Latin phrase, BIS DAT QUI CITO DAT (“He gives twice who gives quickly”) to emphasize Jesus’ message that it is hypocritical to delay relieving suffering with excuses that it’s not convenient at the moment. Acting immediately against injustice can lead to an explosion (the “fireworks” of lines on the image) of concern and action.

Linda P. Hancock is a freelance artist with her lettering and design studio located in Madison, Wisconsin. Her calligraphic artwork brings strong, contemporary graphic interpretation to this ancient fine arts tradition, drawing the observer into the text with bold graphic elements and vivid color. "Calligraphy offers the artist expression of both visual and literary art," she explains. "Grappling with the tension between the author’s original purpose and my response as an interpretive artist is one of its inherent challenges." In her commissioned work, she enjoys continuing to use texts of the clients' choice. However in her personal work, she has begun to use her own words/voice in her calligraphic paintings, which enhances the intimate connection between text and art.

Linda has been pursuing her calligraphic training since 1968 when she began studying letterforms at The Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado, from which she was graduated in English Literature in 1969. She has studied with such noted artists as Thomas Ingmire, Brody Neuenschwander, Georgia Deaver, Charles Pearce and Denis Brown and has exhibited in Madison, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York and London. Her work has been selected for the permanent collection of the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison and the Newberry Library in Chicago, and has been commissioned for the collections of Northwest Mutual

Life Insurance (Milwaukee), Anderson Hospice Center, Attic Angels Association, Covenant Presbyterian Church, Bethel Lutheran Church, and First Congregational Church (all of Madison, Wisconsin), among many others. She was honored as the featured artist for the 2001 Governor's Awards In Support Of The Arts given each year by the Wisconsin Foundation for the Arts. Her work hangs in private collections throughout the United States. Linda has taught calligraphy and design since 1973, including courses offered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Outreach Program and at the 2008 International Lettering Arts Conference in Chicago. She has also taught privately, given workshops and lectured extensively. In her full-time studio, she produces handlettering and graphic design for commercial application (including clients such as American Girl, Lands’ End and Famous Footwear) and also creates commissioned fine art for individual and gallery exhibition.

When not completing client assignments in her calligraphic studio, she pursues a longtime interest in drawing and painting, as shown in the Fine Art Gallery (see menu at left). Her emphasis is on still life, with a continuing desire to explore light and shadow, and negative and positive space. Her works are regularly selected for inclusion in exhibitions around the country and online.